GREATER HARTFORD
COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK MEETING AGENDA
Follow
Up Meeting
Wednesday,
April 15th via Zoom
1PM – 2:15PM
1. Welcome
and Introductions – 5 minutes
2. COVID
– 19 – 30 minutes
i. Agency
Updates
·
Any staff/clients tested positive? Any
Challenges
o
My Sister’s Place – Rosemary, no clients or
staff have tested positive. Main problem is getting clients food (from pantry,
transportation to grocery stores)
o
Mercy – Natalie Cooke – no positive tests
o
Crane – CRMHC – DMHAS got approval to
expedite hiring process. Forwarded email to Matt & JH – looking for direct
care staff including nurses and other staff for inpatient units. Temporary
work. No guarantee of ongoing employment. JH will forward email and email
Crane if there are questions. Mobile
Crisis is still operating – still going out, adjusted hours. Was at hotel
yesterday or the day before. Crane will find out hours of mobile crisis
o
Mark Jenkins – GHHRC – getting ready to set up
mobile, beneficiary of 100 breakfast/meals per day. Need to figure out
locations for – 2 vehicles are revolving units. ROOT is not in person, only
telehealth.
o
Yolanda Potter – Charter Oak Health Center
o
Yoshi Bird – SPI – . Now that in hotel, multiple case managers who are out,
one shelter coordinator who is covering respite program and another shelter
coordinator is still working. Yoshi is covering male clients, agency support
and board needs
o
The Open Hearth – Fred Faulkner - No updates
o
The Connection – John Lawlor no updates
o
Kathy Shaw – no updates
o
Barbara Shaw – Hands on Hartford no positives.
Multiple employment opportunities available at Hands on Hartford. Good capacity
on food.
o
Jose Vega – CRT McKinney. One client expressed
minor symptoms. Going well.
o
Steve Hurley – CHR Enfield. 5 warming center
clients from Enfield at hotel – how to provide assistance to Yoshi/SPI with
assistance in resolving housing issues.
o
Lionel Rigler – City of Hartford – nothing to
report at this point.
o
YWCA – Cathy Zeiner – no updates, no positive
tests
o
Jenn K. – Cornerstone – no changes
o
Rebekah Lyas – ImmaCare – no positive cases. No
updates
o
Lisa Cretella – Salvation Army Marshall House –
. No
other changes.
o
Heather Flannery – Interval House – no changes,
no positive cases, no staffing changes.
o
Tina
Ortiz – CRT – no updates.
o
Kara
Capone – Mercy – no new updates
o
Jen Greer – CHR, no updates no positive tests
for staff or clients.
o
Identified Issues
§
Food – My Sister’s Place (GAP) & GHRRC
distributing food, Hands on Hartford providing food – all will connect after
call.
§
Staffing – Yoshi at SPI, Crane is hiring
additional staffing for DMHAS. SPI reports relief is on horizon, two staff who
tested positive have been out for 2 weeks so should return soon hopefully.
*** please reach out to Sofina for more information on agencies that have reported positive cases.
3. Decision on Prioritization for Shelter/hotels during COVID
– 19 – 10 minutes
a.
Will be calling folks on shelter list and
checking on warming center clients, some are already in hotels. Trying to figure
out where they fit in prioritization. Maybe want to add other vulnerabilities
(may become known in the future) – don’t want current list to be exclusive.
Amanda can add to form.
b.
Question: CAN approve Stephanie and diversion
making judgment for prioritization?
c.
What about clients who can’t receive assistance
through DOC Re-Entry center? CHR is taking lead on re-entry population for RRH.
Mark was referring to clients who need shelter/immediate housing. Matt will
follow up regarding client with CHR/Mark.
d.
Jose reports 3 clients who came to shelter
looking for shelter.
e.
Stephanie reports there’s extra capacity that we
typically don’t have now. Hope by end of day tomorrow to have everyone on old
list to the new list. Reaching out to everyone including folks in hotels.
4. Health Care Coordination – Kara Capobianco – 10
Minutes
a.
GHRRC has mobile van
b.
There will be a call tomorrow among healthcare
coordination.
c.
All shelters operating in one location –
confusing on who would be the point for healthcare for the building. Charter
Oak long standing relationship with shelters, licensed at several shelters
including YWCA South Park and providing healthcare for healthcare for the
homeless.
d.
Wanted to streamline things – telehealth is
becoming widely available. Charter Oak is able to triage clients over the phone
and direct to appropriate appointment. Yolanda Potter is the point person for
all this. Smartsheet form will collect all data she needs and then send email
to Yolanda for info. Can also track what referrals are coming in.
e.
Client/Case manager fills out the form which
will get to Yolanda. Yolanda will reach out to client or case manager. Yolanda
will triage call to one of the medical behavioral health providers. If client
has smartphone or computer with camera, that might be better. COVID department
now. Can send to Yolanda to triage symptoms.
f.
The Open Hearth – since not in hotels, will
still do the same process through smartsheets. Smartsheet is a way to track on
all referrals (COVID, behavioral, medical)
g.
If client has own doctor, don’t have to go
through Charter Oak. Almost all primary care across the state are going through
telehealth/covid screening.
h.
Will get flyers out to hotels, post in lobby or
slid under doors. Just have to ask one of the staff in hotel to make referral. Put
link somewhere so it doesn’t get lost – maybe JH resources page. Will
review this at Operations.
5. New
HUD ESG-COVID-19 Funding for City of Hartford and Balance of State – 15 Minutes
a.
BOS not COC – rather ESG BOS – City gets own
allotment of funds.
b.
City of Hartford will be receiving 1 million for
COVID, state about 8 million
c.
No known requirements on breakdown yet. Normally
40%RRH,60%ES
d.
How should JH advocate to DOH and CCEH and other
influencers on how we should spend this funding amongst the categories? In this
case, may be hotel capacity.
e.
Charges can go back to beginning of month. Can
be for preparedness, planning, response.
f.
75% towards RRH to help turn over shelter/hotel
beds faster – originally HPRP back in 2008, most went to homelessness
prevention and surveys and evaluations were unclear how much prevention was
provided. If we go in this direction, need to target resources better. Need
more research on who is more likely to be homeless. 25% additional capacity for
hotel sites.
g.
CCAN wanted to make sure it went to homelessness
prevention. Ended with third split.
h.
Lionel reports no direction, no guidelines have
come out yet. CCEH is talking but no guidelines yet from HUD.
i.
CDBG – removed public service gap. Will go
towards diversion.
j.
DOH trying to work admin plan for 8 million.
Most of DOH ESG went to RRH. Trying to
figure out what FEMA is paying for – preferring FEMA pay for hotel or food
cost. That’s why survey went out to get idea of what CANs need so we can use
those numbers so we can pull from wherever we need to fill holes. Amanda
submitted GH CAN yesterday.
k.
Cathy Z – can we use this money to get folks out
of shelter? Consistent barriers, one being no income – RRH not great solution
if not able to obtain income. Challenge with LLs to show units. Need to be
thinking of other barriers.
l.
SPI/McKinney expressed concerns short staff on
case managers. Can money be used for services/case management or monitors at
hotel to free up case management resource.
m.
SPI has some people who are close and thinks if
we had more basic case management we could get them out faster.
n.
Outreach? Crane will forward survey regarding
outreach needs.
o.
Yoshi would vote for even split. Lots of money
spent on overtime. Fred supports.
6. Is
GH CAN taking in new shelter admissions? If not, when? CCEH is fielding a lot
of community inquiries. Goal is as soon as possible. Within next couple of
days, place more people in hotels to reach normal shelter occupancy based on
new prioritization. Can increase capacity in hotel in general if they hire
temporary staff with understanding that there won’t be a guaranteed shelter for
them to return.
7. If
they are unable to contact someone on the list, will reach out to CAN to see if
they know where they are. If we can’t get a hold of them now, we can’t get a
hold of them when trying to place in hotels. Will ask soup kitchens/outreach
workers to have clients reach out to diversion center if they encounter folks
with no phones.
8. About
45 people on old list who needed to be contacted – CHR Enfield/Manchester,
ImmaCare, Mercy were able to split list. Wanted to implement standardized
prioritization since everyone is getting calls and not enough space to serve
everybody and wanted fair process.
9. South
Park Inn has about 10 openings. Respite clients are being discharged to literal
homelessness. Need to use list to get folks in.
10. Tyeisha
reports will have a couple of families discharging so may be able to take in
new folks.
11. OH
not taking in new people. Shelter in place.
12. SAMH
– not planning to back fill when people get discharged. 5/31/2020 is overflow
end date. Marshall House is at capacity. Open to guidance on if the Marshall
House beds become available on whether to refill.
13. YWCA
will keep census at 15 just to make sure appropriate distancing in rooms.
14.
Announcements
a. IMPORTANT IRS INFORMATION ON ECONOMIC STIMULUS PAYMENT
See the link below for those in your homeless programs who may not
have filed a 2018 and/or 2019 tax return. They can use this link to submit
banking or address information to which they can receive their economic
stimulus payment. This link is just for non-filers. Please check this same
site periodically for an additional link for those who may need to update their
banking or address information.
